NHL conference finals' viewership doubles from '12

NEW YORK (AP) -- The NHL conference finals' television viewership more than doubled from last year.

With three large-market teams and three clubs with recent histories of luring audiences, the Blackhawks-Kings and Bruins-Penguins series averaged 2.65 million viewers on NBC and NBC Sports Network despite lasting only a combined nine games. Kings-Coyotes and Devils-Rangers averaged 1.25 million viewers last year over 11 games.

Helped by two double-overtime games, this year's series drew the most viewers for a conference finals in 17 years, when games on Fox and ESPN averaged 2.86 million viewers; the population was smaller then, but that was for 13 games.